DHX Moves For-Hire Ops to Canada

Canadian indie toon house DHX Media is moving its Los Angeles-based work for hire production operations to Canada to take advantage of tax credits, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The production company which is based in Halifax is reportedly pursuing cost saving measures after its $112 million acquisition of Cookie Jar Entertainment (holder of popular brands like Care Bears) and has declared it will be “winding down” low-margin LA service studio work.

The plan involves shifting service work operations to high-margin animation studios in Canada over the next year to take advantage of more generous film and digital production tax credits in the country–it is speculated the move will bring this work to the popular studio hub of Vancouver, BC. THR notes that DHX did roughly $20 million in for-hire production work on four shows, including DreamWorks/Nickelodeon’s Dragons: Riders of Berk and HBO’s The Ricky Gervais Show.

The announcement comes after DHX revealed its Q2 2013 results and indicated both its for-hire and proprietary slates were lagging, though distribution revenues climbed after it acquired Cookie Jar.